On November 26, Andrey Bystritskiy, Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club, took part in the plenary session of the 2021 DMZ International Forum on the Peace Economy, organized by the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP) and the National Research Council for Economics, Humanities, and Social Sciences (NRC). The event topic was “Building Resilience for Peace and International Cooperation on the Korean Peninsula”.
In his speech, he pointed out that the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t only fail to rally humanity together, but also catalysed some destructive trends, further weakening global solidarity. Tensions are growing all over the world. The pandemic has shown that humanity is losing its ability to respond to global challenges constructively, and in solidarity. Instead of cooperating, creating mechanisms of coordination, distributing vaccines, introducing common rules for all, many of the world’s elites are showing extreme selfishness. There is a similar situation in the area of combating climate change.
Bystritskiy said that the most important task today is to develop effective mechanisms for global interaction. He mentioned that Russia is trying to propose fair and honest rules of conduct on the world stage, but these efforts are hindered by the atmosphere of suspicion, which poisons the entire system of international relations. Nevertheless, in his opinion, since the risks are extremely high for the whole of humanity, people have no other choice but to continue trying to reach agreement.
The programme of the event is available on the website of the DMZ International Forum on the Peace Economy-2021.
